Pope arrives in Abu Dhabi

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by catholicherald.co.uk -The Pope was welcomed by Emirati Prime Minister Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum -- The sun had set long before Pope Francis arrived in Abu Dhabi on February 3, but Sheik Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the crown prince, and Egyptian Sheik Ahmad el-Tayeb, grand imam of al-Azhar, still went to the airport to welcome him. It had been a rare rainy day on the southeast coast of the Arabian peninsula, which, the Pope told reporters traveling with him, was seen as a sign of blessing by the people of the United Arab Emirates. Since the Pope arrived at almost 10pm local time, the official welcoming ceremony was scheduled for the next day. But there was a brief greeting inside the President’s Airport. The Pope then went to Al Mushrif Palace, the government’s guesthouse for visiting foreign dignitaries.

Pope Francis boarded the Alitalia plane for the almost six-hour flight to Abu Dhabi after praying the Angelus at noon with pilgrims in St Peter’s Square. After reciting the Marian prayer, the Pope asked the crowd to pray for the success of his “brief but important trip.” The Pope was scheduled to spend less than 48 hours in the UAE. Many people had wondered if, during his stay in Abu Dhabi, Pope Francis would mention the ongoing war in Yemen and the humanitarian catastrophe it has provoked; the UAE has a leading role, along with Saudi Arabia, in fighting the Houthi armed movement in Yemen. Both sides have been accused of serious human rights abuses, including targeting civilians and preventing the distribution of emergency humanitarian aid. Pope Francis spoke of the crisis after reciting the Angelus. “With great concern I am following the humanitarian crisis in Yemen,” he told the crowd in St Peter’s Square. “The population is worn out by the long conflict and many, many children are suffering from hunger, but they are unable to access the stores of food.” “Brothers and sisters,” he said, “the cry of these children and their parents rises to God.”

Pope Francis called on “all sides involved” and the international community “to urgently promote the observance of the agreements that have been reached, ensure the distribution of food and work for the good of the population.” “I invite everyone to pray for our brothers and sisters in Yemen,” he said, leading the recitation of the Hail Mary. “Let us pray hard because there are children who are hungry, who are thirsty, who do not have medicine and are in danger of dying,” the Pope said. Before praying the Angelus, Pope Francis met at his residence with a dozen refugees — Christians and Muslims — being assisted by the papal almoner and the Rome-based Sant’Egidio Community; the group included a couple of women from Yemen, a family from Morocco and a married couple from Iran, Sant’Egidio said in a statement.

When a job interview goes very wrong

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By Peter Rubinstein -bbc.com - Olivia Bland, a 22-year-old from Manchester looking for a job in communications, knows how a job interview is supposed to go. A handshake, a few questions about strengths and weaknesses, some CV inspecting and a pleasant send-off. “They’re usually casual,” Bland says, “and definitely not two hours long.” But earlier this week, an interview she had with tech firm Web Applications UK left her in tears. In a viral tweet, she alleged that chief executive Craig Dean degraded and humiliated her about everything from her music taste to her parents’ marriage. Bland was offered the job but declined, likening Dean’s behaviour to that of an abusive ex. “He went on from attacking my writing to attacking me, including the way I sat and how I held my arms,” she says. Her tweet was shared tens of thousands of times, and prompted Dean to post an apology saying it had not been his intent to see anyone hurt. Web Applications UK has publicly denied Bland’s claims, but did not respond to BBC Capital for comment.

Stress test

The type of experience described by Bland is known as a ‘stress interview’ – a technique to test how applicants deal with pressure by taking them out of the comfort zone of expected questions and answers. One example is a trend that was prevalent in the tech industry earlier this decade – where an interviewer would ask a candidate bizarre questions such as “why are manhole covers round?” or instruct them to design something on the spot. The goal isn’t to get an exact answer – instead it’s to see how a candidate reacts and to test their thought process. “There are certainly different kinds of stress associated with many positions - achieving results, meeting deadlines, dealing with difficult clients, for example,” says Neal Hartman, senior lecturer in managerial communication at MIT. “The stress interview can create conditions to see how an applicant would handle those challenges.” Stress interviews can also be used to simulate certain situations, such as testing customer service agents who need to be prepared to deal with abusive phone calls, says Kim Ruyle, president of Inventive Talent Consulting. In such situations, the candidate would need to be told in advance. In any case, there’s a stark difference between asking a tough question and belittling a candidate, Ruyle says, adding that verbal abuse in any workplace setting is inappropriate and should never be part of the interview.

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Why Microsoft is 'sending shivers down Amazon's spine'

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By Alyssa Newcomb -- nbcnews.com -- Amazon has a history of dropping cash on companies, like its $13.7 billion cash acquisition of Whole Foods in 2017. But when it announced in its latest earnings report that it planned to increase investments in 2019, the company’s shares fell 5 percent, even dropping into bear territory on Friday. But Amazon may want to continue to buy up smaller companies, said Daniel Ives, managing director of equity research at Wedbush Securities — especially if it wants to keep up with cross-town rival Microsoft, which is rapidly advancing in the "cloud" arms race. “Amazon's biggest nightmare is what is happening on the other side of town in Seattle and Redmond, Washington," said Ives. "Microsoft is really starting to get a strut in their step with cloud and that is sending shivers down the spine of Amazon. If you look at what Microsoft are doing on the cloud side, they are aggressively going after Amazon."

Amazon reported $7.4 billion in cloud revenue last year, marking a 45 percent increase from the same period the previous year. However, it’s still down from 49 percent from two quarters earlier. “It's a cloud arms race going on. Amazon has been miles ahead of the competition, but that gap is narrowing. We believe this is going to lead to more mergers and acquisitions this year,” said Ives. Microsoft does not break out its cloud revenue for investors, but said it was up 76 percent in its second-quarter earnings for 2019, which Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella said was a reflection of “our deep and growing partnerships with leading companies in every industry.”

In Microsoft’s earnings call on Wednesday, Amy Hood, the company’s chief financial officer, said the company is picking up more large, long-term contracts from Microsoft Azure clients, including a five-year deal with Gap. Microsoft is a massive competitor to Amazon and is expected to close some of the gap. However, Amazon is still in a dominant place, despite the slight deceleration, according to Patrick Moorhead, principal analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy. “AWS delivers more profit dollars to the company than all its retailing and products combined. It is natural for the percent growth to slow a little bit as a business gets large,” said Moorhead. “Investors needs to recognize that the 45 percent gain is on a huge base of business. AWS’s real-dollar growth was larger than Azure, GCP, and Oracle combined.” There’s still a massive opportunity to reach new customers who have not migrated to the cloud, so the next few years will be pivotal as the tech giants lean heavily on growing their services revenue. The cloud services market is expected to be worth $555 billion globally by next year, according to a report by Allied Market Research

FaceTime Bug Let People Eavesdrop – Now, Apple Is Trying To Fix It

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by evolving-science -- Apple is already testing a version of iOS 12.1.4 that is meant to address the rogue FaceTime bug that allowed a caller to access the microphone and even the camera of the recipient before the latter picked up the call. The FaceTime eavesdropping bug allowed iPhone users to exploit a privacy-invading 'Group FaceTime' flaw that let one person connect to another person and hear conversations (and see a video, in some cases) without the other person ever having accepted the call. he glitch was embarrassing for Apple, who is set to report disappointing financial earnings in the past year. The Silicon Valley company has long-positioned itself as a protector of user privacy offering more secure devices than its rivals. Apple’s revenue warnings sent its shares down more than 7 percent in after-hours trading on Wednesday (Jan 30, 2019) evening, dropping its market value to less than $700 billion. It is not clear whether this is a problem particular to Apple or whether China’s slowing economy will affect other American companies too.

Apple has already put a stop to the FaceTime bug by disabling Group FaceTime server side, leaving the feature unavailable, but questions remain about how long the bug was accessible and how long Apple knew about it before attempting a fix. The mother of a teenager, who originally discovered the bug, shared convincing evidence that she contacted the Cupertino company as early as January 20, 2019. She did not receive a response from Apple despite sending emails and a video. Therefore, it is not clear when the team at Apple learned of the bug and when work on a fix was started. There was a multi-day wait for an official solution to perhaps one of the worst Apple-related privacy bugs we've seen. However, this does suggest that development on the iOS 12.1.4 did not start too far ahead of when the bug went public.

New York Governor, Andrew Cuomo, and the new Attorney General, Letitia James, on Wednesday (Jan 30, 2019), said the state was probing Apple's failure to warn consumers about a FaceTime bug that lets iPhones users see and hear others before accepting video calls. The statement also mentioned that Cuomo and James would probe Apple's slow response and cited media reports that a consumer had made the company aware of the bug more than a week before it acted to disable the FaceTime feature.

Upcoming iOS 12.1.4 Update will Fix FaceTime Bug Apple is already testing a version of the iOS (12.1.4) meant to address the FaceTime bug. Though the update is not yet available for consumers, it has been confirmed that Apple is indeed testing it. As a placeholder, Apple shut down Group FaceTime to prevent the hack from being exploited. The company said that it would push out an update “later this week” to fix the bug and that update appears to be iOS 12.1.4. It is still not evident when exactly Apple will begin the rollout, but with iOS 12.1.4 already popping up, it wouldn’t be surprising to see a change within the next 24 to 48 hours.

Lebanon Announces the Formation of a New Government After 9-Month Deadlock

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By SARAH EL DEEB / AP Updated: January 31, 2019 12:48 PM ET (BEIRUT) — Lebanese political factions agreed finally Thursday on the formation of a new government, breaking a nine-month deadlock that only deepened the country’ economic woes. Rival political groups have been locked in disagreement over the make-up of a new government since May, after the country’s first parliamentary elections in nine years. The breakthrough comes after rival factions worked out a compromise allowing representation of Sunni lawmakers backed by the powerful Shiite group Hezbollah. Celebrations broke out after the announcement, including huge fireworks that lit up the Beirut sky. The most pressing challenge for the cabinet is to revive Lebanon's economic fortunes and cut the national debt, which stands at about 150% of GDP.

For the first time, the Lebanese government includes four women ministers, doubling their representation, including the powerful Ministry of Interior in charge of internal security. Gebran Bassil, the son-in-law of the Lebanese President, remains foreign minister. Hariri called the new government “a reflection of Lebanon’s image in 2019.” The main pressure appeared to be Lebanon’s deepening economic woes and Hariri told reporters the economy will be priority. “There isn’t any more time to waste,” he said. Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri said on Thursday that Lebanon faced economic and financial challenges and the time for treating problems with “painkillers” was over, as his new national unity government took office. “The time of treatment with painkillers is over. No one can put their head in the sand any more. Matters are as clear as the sun. All the problems are known and the causes of the corruption and waste and administrative deficiency are also known,” he said. “Lebanese are living in concern about the economic situation,” he said, adding that the government’s work could not wait.

The last big hurdle was a dispute over how Hezbollah’s Sunni allies should be represented in cabinet, resolved by the inclusion of Hassan Mrad, the son of the pro-Hezbollah and pro-Damascus MP Abdul Rahim Mrad.

For a complete lists of candidates and names of the new ministers (Cabinet lineup) please click read more

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Carlos Ghosn: I'm the victim of a Nissan plot

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Hong Kong (CNN Business) Carlos Ghosn is claiming a plot against him by Nissan executives caused his spectacular downfall. In his first media interview since his stunning arrest more than two months ago, Ghosn told Japanese news organization Nikkei that he had "no doubt" that the allegations against him are the result of "plot and treason" by Nissan (NSANF) executives who opposed his plan to deepen the automaker's integration with its French partner Renault (RNLSY). One of the most prominent figures in the global auto industry, Ghosn has been detained by Japanese prosecutors since November 19.

During the Nikkei interview, he reiterated his denial of charges of financial misconduct, which have cost him his top roles at Nissan, Renault and Mitsubishi Motors — the three companies he brought together to form the world's biggest carmaking alliance. The 64-year-old business leader's fall from grace has raised questions about the future of the alliance, which makes one in nine cars sold worldwide and employs more than 450,000 people. In the interview published Wednesday, Ghosn rejected suggestions that he ran Nissan for nearly two decades as a "dictatorship." "People translated strong leadership to dictator, to distort reality" and for the "purpose of getting rid of me," he told Nikkei.

Nissan said in November that it began cooperating with Japanese prosecutors after a whistleblower helped it uncover serious financial misconduct by Ghosn. In the interview, Ghosn acknowledged for the first time that "there was a plan" to integrate the three carmakers more closely and that this had been discussed with Nissan CEO Hiroto Saikawa. Ghosn said his plan was to give Nissan, Renault and Mitsubishi "autonomy under one holding company." Analysts have repeatedly speculated that Nissan executives were uncomfortable about the possibility of Renault and Ghosn seeking full control of the Japanese company. Nissan, which sells more vehicles than Renault, has only a 15% non-voting stake in the French company. Renault holds more than 40% of Nissan. Responding to the interview, a Nissan spokesman said that "the sole cause of this chain of events is the misconduct led by Ghosn."

'Distortion of reality'

Japanese prosecutors have indicted him on allegations he understated his income at Nissan by about $80 million between 2010 and 2018, and abused his position by improperly using the company to help sort out personal investment losses during the global financial crisis. Ghosn told Nikkei that the arrangements had been approved by the relevant executives within Nissan and weren't inappropriate. Nissan and Mitsubishi have separately alleged that Ghosn improperly received €7.8 million ($8.9 million) in compensation and other payments from a joint venture between the two carmakers. Ghosn said the venture was established for "synergy and not for payment" and that claims of improper payments were a "distortion of reality."